Empire Conquest-Chapter 806 - 74: Full Retreat

In the past few days, the Empire’s Air Force focused mainly on interdiction bombing.

Despite suffering extremely heavy losses, with just multi-purpose fighters being shot down numbering in the hundreds, and losing one forward large early warning command aircraft due to a surprise attack, with nearly 1,000 pilots killed or missing, the achievements were also significant, destroying about two-thirds of locomotives within a 1,500-kilometer range, with train cars destroyed uncounted, and through bombing bridges and tunnels, directly reducing railway transportation from the western Luosha hinterland to the front line by 60%, and difficult to restore in a short time.

Relying on road transportation, is only slightly better than nothing.

Although armored forces mainly rely on road advancement, in large-scale wars, railways are still primarily necessary, with roads as auxiliary.

This is also the basic situation on the continent’s battlefield.

On both banks of the Volga River, traffic is centered around railways, relying on stations along the way and road connections, and then connected various regions via roads.

Both attack and defense parties are highly dependent on railways.

The reason is simple, in the continental hinterland where sea and inland river shipping are unreliable, only railways can handle massive transportation tasks.

Of course, there is also the issue of troop strength.

With the current situation, the western Luosha can at most bring up 2 divisions of the 9th Group Army, which would take at least 3 days, and even then, it’s uncertain these 2 divisions can get enough supplies. Based on the performance in the previous days, such as combat loss rates, 2 divisions will definitely be inadequate.

To maintain the offensive momentum, relying on other countries of the West Continent Group, especially the Tiaoman Empire, is necessary.

According to the intelligence held by the Military Intelligence Bureau, Tiaoman Empire and other western Luosha group member states made commitments to western Luosha, ensuring they would dispatch ground troops to participate after the war began.

The key is how many troops are dispatched to participate.

According to the more reliable accounts, Tiaoman Empire will invest at least the forces of 1 army, while other major member states, such as Raleigh Kingdom, Locke Kingdom, Sban Kingdom, and Bulan Kingdom, will invest forces no less than 1 division, with many second-tier allies contributing forces at or above brigade level.

If calculated this way, the Allies provide approximately the forces of 2 armies.

In fact, most of these troops are deployed in the occupied territories of western Luosha, only Locke Kingdom and Bulan Kingdom’s armies are not deployed within western Luosha.

armies aren’t few, not to mention they are elite units long deployed on the front line.

The problem is, these allies’ combat units are strategic reserves, and according to the plan, will not participate in the first round of assault tasks.

The reason is, allies’ armies need more time to complete pre-war mobilization.

Even Tiaoman garrison troops, with a higher daily readiness level, need a week to complete mobilization tasks, then spend a few days to head to the front line.

Thereby, the large-scale engagement time for Western Continent Group Allied Forces is half a month after the war begins.

To say it, western Luosha Army’s readiness was done according to this standard, namely the first round of assault time is 15 days, with the minimum goal being the capture of Astrakhan.

After taking down this city, they can stop and wait for the ally’s reinforcements to arrive.

The current issue is that no matter what, the western Luosha military cannot capture Astrakhan within 15 days, thus it won’t be possible to complete combat tasks according to the plan.

Wait for ally reinforcements to arrive, then launch an attack?

Obviously, this is very unrealistic.

The key is that the Eastern Group will not sit idly by, besides using this time to strengthen their defense deployment, they might launch a counterattack.

If the Eastern Group were to successfully launch a counterattack, the consequences would be unimaginable.

By then, even if withstanding the Eastern Group’s counterattack, all they could do is abandon offensive actions and prematurely switch to strategic defense.

Unfortunately, this is also the result most unwillingly accepted by western Luosha authorities.

Maybe, the Tiaoman Empire wants to use this war to eliminate internal conflicts within the West Continent Group and consolidate their status, thereby maintaining their hegemony.

However, what the western Luosha authorities want is undoubtedly to re-unify.

Not only to capture Astrakhan but also to occupy the entire eastern Luosha.

Prematurely switching to defense, western Luosha would gain nothing.

Between continuing the attack and stopping advancement, western Luosha authorities will inevitably choose the former, even knowing the chance of achieving greater victory will be lost.

Combining this with battlefield information obtained from the Air Force, it’s not hard to judge that at most, the enemy will halt for one day, maybe even launch a new attack after only half a day.

However, the invested troop numbers won’t be many.

The Eastern Group also cannot invest enough forces to withstand the enemy’s attack.

Because of this, on the morning of the 13th, after returning to Atla, Lian Mingyang received the message from Zheng Zhishuang, they had half a day to adjust their status.

Lost armed helicopters shouldn’t be considered for now.

Don’t even think about a "Z-10A", and there aren’t even "Z-7W" available; the earliest possibility of receiving replacement armed helicopters will be by the end of the month.

However, there are sufficient transport helicopters, but a lack of pilots.

These helicopters are all transported here via railways, mainly "Z-4", some even placed in half storage status.

Actually, these helicopters were originally stored in the desert of eastern Luosha.

Apart from early models, the "Z-4" produced and equipped in the later stages of the Boi War were stored after retirement, with the storage location being the Kilkum desert in eastern Luosha.

The reason is simple, this is the driest place globally, with annual rainfall less than 40 millimeters.

The so-called "storage" is actually removing easily damaged parts, after rust-proofing processes, wrapping with canvas without actual sealing.

Due to extreme dryness, there’s virtually no issue even with open-air placement.

After opening them, just performing necessary checks, replacing easily aged consumables, conducting required tests, then they can be handed to troops for use.

Over ten "Z-4D" have already been assembled and completed inspections.

Lian Mingyang didn’t compete with other pilots for merits, not out of modesty, but because the engine of the "Z-10A" he was piloting blew out during return, making immediate repairs impossible unless requisitioning other crews’ armed helicopters, otherwise he would pilot transport helicopters.

For Lian Mingyang, flying a "Z-4D" poses no challenge.

"Z-4D" is the Imperial Army Flying Academy’s trainer helicopter; all pilots must fly this helicopter for 50 hours before graduation to qualify for final assessments, with dozens of flying test items conducted using this helicopter.

The reason is none other than that "Z-4D" is not only cheap but extremely robust.

In fact, weapon operators must also master flight skills because in special circumstances, weapon operators may need to pilot helicopters.

Since it’s just emergency control of helicopters, weapon operators like Jiang Shanggui underwent flight training on "Z-4D". During peacetime, weapon operators must undergo annual training, with the main task of solo piloting helicopter flights.

Here, Lian Mingyang received a new mission.

Do everything possible to transport troops and supplies to Astrakhan while evacuating severely injured personnel to rear battlefield hospitals during return flights.

Despite the "Z-4D" only carrying over 1 ton of cargo per trip, a round trip flight takes just 2 hours.

The key is that the "Z-4D" is renowned for its robustness.

During the Boi War, the "Z-4D" proved to be an extremely reliable transport helicopter with very high sortie intensity. In the Imperial Land Air Force’s combat records, 1 "Z-4D" set a record of 42 sorties in 3 days of combat, totaling 56 flight hours.

To this day, that record remains unbroken!

As Land Air Force pilots say, as long as the pilots aren’t exhausted, the "Z-4D" can keep flying!

Without such a reliable helicopter, the Boi War wouldn’t have lasted over a decade; it would have forced the Empire into withdrawal in just a few years.

Actually, because of its reliability, the Empire Army decided to store most "Z-4D" helicopters.

Now, these stored helicopters are beginning to exert their residual heat.

Receiving the mission, Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui went to "pick up" a "Z-4D", followed by recruiting 2 machine gunners from the ground personnel units.

Then, while the logistics support troops were loading cargo, they both went to have breakfast.

As for installing door-mounted machine guns, the machine gunners are responsible; there’s no need for the pilots to personally oversee this, and inspections can be done just before departure.

By this time, it was already past 10 a.m.

Actually, upon stopping, Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui felt hunger, as if they had been drained, with no strength left in their bodies.